Shower Curtain Conundrum

In the spirit of pre-bathroom-makeover week, I thought I would share our thoughts on the item that will stand out the most in this space: the shower curtain. The bathroom is so tiny that the shower curtain (sadly) takes up a good portion of visual surface area in the room. It is also the first thing people see when they walk in (and the only thing you see really if the door is open). Let me remind you what it looks like now:

Ignore the sad, old, shrunken shower curtain that USED to be cute. Since we are going with a grey room with yellow accents, the big question is how much yellow do we want here? Also, we need to find a fabric or an existing shower curtain that works in half the space of a normal shower curtain (I chopped the last one I got in half). Lastly, we don’t want it to compete with the Beatles art that we will be hanging right next to it.

I went to Joann Fabrics to get some ideas. I was looking for things more on the grey printed side but wasn’t able for find much. So I took a few pictures of some of the gray/yellow prints that I found:

I like this but it would be too busy on an entire curtain. Perhaps a stripe along the bottom of a plain grey or yellow curtain?

Again, too busy with the alternating pattern but it would look cute as a stripe at the bottom of a solid curtain.

A little to boring and similar to what we have had for a while. I’m over vertical stripes. But perhaps it would look cute with horizontal stripes?

I like that the print is calmer on this but it’s not really jumping out at me.

I was a bit disappointed but there are definitely fabrics I could work with for at least part of a curtain. So I started looking on online to see what I could find.

I love this shower curtain from West Elm but I have seen it EVERYWHERE. The simplicity is nice though.

This fabric is Premier Prints Barber Slub Texture Yellow Gray Bird that I found on Etsy. I like the idea but the colors are both wrong.

This fabric is Far Far Away III Guitars in Yellow/Grey by Heather Ross for Kokka that I found on Etsy. I love this print but I worry it could be too busy (the guitars are about the size of a quarter). Also, I don’t want the bathroom to be too theme-y with the Beatles poster.

I thought this would be super easy but I am beginning to think I may need to see the room actually painted to really see what balance to strike between grey and yellow. I really love the CB2 arbor shower curtain and Walker likes the guitars (FYI, the seller on Etsy is mailing us a swatch so we can see if the colors are right). So we will paint the room and see how we feel.

16 Responses to "Shower Curtain Conundrum"

Stephanie

April 25, 2012 at 10:23 am

I think I’m with you – I need to see the room painted before I could decide. But if you are going with mostly grey and don’t want the curtain to be the focal point then I would think going with a solid color with the stripe of pattern at the bottom would be the best route. Of course that may also draw the eye down instead of to the Beatles memorabilia…

I like the guitar patten but it may be hard to figure out what it is if it’s only a stripe at the bottom and the guitars are really small…but it’s a neat idea to tie the room together.

Thanks Steph! Yeah I am having a really hard time visualizing how much of an impact I want the curtain to make. I think we need the room painted and the art hung to decide. And good point about bringing the eye down with a stripe at the bottom. I never thought about that! Thanks!

I agree about the guitars… I am so afraid it would be too busy but I love the fabric! :)

I think the first fabric is my favorite! But horizontal stripes could help the space appear wider. Either way I think the shower curtain and the actual curtains should be 2 different, but complimentary patterns, one bold and the other more neutral. Or maybe do a roman shade for that window instead?

I definitely agree! I can’t wait to toss those old curtains! I love Roman shades. I think the window treatment will end up having to wait until the room is painted as well so we can get a feel for the balance. Thanks Ashley!

Mom

April 25, 2012 at 4:10 pm

I like the horizontal strip…maybe in yellow and white? It would give you some horizontal movement and maybe the bathroom will seem bigger. Hahahaha….we know that won’t really be true tho. Maybe you can paint the outside walls of the shower in matching horizontal stripes to make the shower look bigger. Hmmmmm.

I definitely dig gray and yellow together. I wanted that for our bedroom but it got vetoed. haha.

As for the curtain, I think the first fabric (it looks like medallions to me) would be great as the top and/or bottom of a solid curtain. I bet you could even make your own tree curtain pretty easily! Bed Bath & Beyond has a tree curtain, but its only in black and brown I think.

I think gray and yellow are such a great color combo! I can’t wait to see what you end up with – maybe if I keep reading I will see, since I think this is an older post! I just discovered your blog through Louise’s coffee date post :)